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Taiyuden
Overview From the sprawling lands of Hoshijou comes the Taiyuden (Tie-you-den) faith. The religion has changed some over the centuries but its origins likely began prior to the first dynasty of the empire. As a faith, Taiyuden draws inspiration from its origins and has also been richly colored by Chou-Tai (the faith as it is known in Choujou Grove) and Shurandi. Original Taiyuden is a polytheistic faith that centered on the belief that ideas and themes were of the gods and thusly originally created by them. This has changed greatly over the years as the faith came into contact with other religions. Perhaps the most influential on modern Taiyuden was contact with the Emerlin of Choujou Grove whose faith is now properly referred to as 'Chou-Tai' (Chow-Tie). This faith believes in the idea of a world where everything is interconnected and all things have a soul or spirit. In coinciding with traditional Taiyuden's belief that ideas themselves stem from the holy, it is easy to understand how this concept was rolled into the core faith. This coupled with the introduction to a dualistic view of 'themes' and 'concepts' from Shurandi has given rise to the current version of the faith. Life in Every Breath True to the essence of Chou-Tai's influence, monks of the Taiyuden faith believe that everything in the world is alive. The idea of something as mundane as a rock having a soul or a spirit may seem preposterous to many, but the literal interpretation of the faith believes that all things carry a soul or a spirit - even the rock. To the monks of the faith, this is due to the fact that all things are inter-connected in the world. The rock is of the earth and the earth is of all of us and thusly we are connected (albeit loosely) to the rock. This concept has led to there being a great deal of ceremony in the faith's culture as everything is taken seriously at least up to a point. A prime example of this would be the level of care taken in forging a blade by even the most humble of sword smiths owed partly to the fact that they literally believe that the iron they're re-shaping has a soul of it's own as does the fire they use to shape it. Spirits and Gods In keeping with its traditional themes, the Taiyuden faith has shaped up to be quite different from its base, simplistic, version. In adopting so much of Chou-Tai into their belief system, there was soon a large basis for what many outsiders believe to be deluge of deities in their beliefs. However, this is not entirely true. In essence, spirits and gods in Taiyuden can be construed as one and the same and indeed to many not well versed in the faith this may seem to be the case. After all, a particularly powerful spirit may indeed have abilities similar to a god but in most cases are not considered one of the gods. Although adding to this confusion, some spirits are powerful enough to be treated and even worshiped like a god would be which tends to further exacerbate the confusion to those not of the faith. A simple example could be a forest. Every tree is it's own living thing and therefore has a spirit or soul. However, the entire forest itself also has a spirit and a soul and how that particular spirit is regarded might be much closer to that of a deity as opposed to the spirit of a single tree. In part, one could consider that the one is the culmination of the all, though this is not entirely considered to be the case either. Gods on the other hand, are typically those from the traditional Taiyuden faith which is based on the concept of ideas and themes. Such an example would be Taizu, the god of nobility; or Monshunin, the god of war. Monks and priests of Taiyuden faith often specialize or dedicate their particular temples or sets of beliefs towards a specific god or spirit (or type of spirits). The Shurandi Influence As stated prior, Taiyuden is a religion that has been greatly influenced by other neighboring and local religions. Amongst these was the rise of the Shurandi faith in Hoshijou's lands. Contact between the empire and the people of Shimedesh went much differently than any would have expected. Hoshijou's emperors had a long history of expansionist attitudes towards would be neighbors throughout much of their history, so one would think that upon encountering a people as seemingly meek as those from Shimedesh that the emperor wouldn't hesitate to take the land for himself. As it turns out, Hoshijou learned a great deal from their encounters with other more substantial powers such as Heoden and Anadacia whom they encountered prior to Shimedesh and decided wisely to attempt a more respectful approach to diplomacy. The resulting alliance and friendship between the two cultures has since stood the test of time and in fact, much of this stems from the emperor's love the Shurandi faith at the time. The idea of dualism in all things meshed so easily and so well with the beliefs that had earlier been adopted from Chou-Tai that they soon became part of the Taiyuden faith as a whole. In particular, the concept of balance between forces became a driving point that was taken into the Taiyuden faith. This concept, which is often referred to as Yin and Yang in Hoshijou, quickly found itself integrated fully into the faith in less than century and has since become a cornerstone of the faith as much as the concept of all things live and connect with each other. Pervasive Yet Not Intrusive In Hoshijou, monks of the Taiyuden and Chou-Tai faiths can be found literally everywhere. The influence the religion has on day-to-day affairs is equally easy to see to any outsiders as there are shrines and temples dotting the countryside in even the most obscure places imaginable in the empire. It is not uncommon for even the most humble farmer to have some type of token to a spirit or god in his home, but rather the accepted norm. Despite this, the Taiyuden faith is not intrusive nor is it its spread caused by any severe overzealous attempts to proselyte to the populous. This is rather in contrast to other faiths that carry the same weight or pervasive quality. Monks are more than willing to help any who ask but will not normally interfere if not. Some of the Taiyuden 'Major Deities' * Taizu (nobility) * Monshunin (war) * Ozai-Teshnin (death) * Inazaka (wisdom) * Ameratsu (creation) * Ryukai (weather) * Ina-no-Sunin (harvest) * Akariman (craft)